query: trailer park co-ops

[colist-admin at comm-org.utoledo.edu]

[ed:  thanks to Paul for the thoughts on trailer park co-ops.]

From: Paul Gowder <pgowder at yahoo.com>

There is absolutely no question that mobile home parks are by far the best 
way of running things, with perhaps ownership by a public housing authority 
(does anyone live in any community where they do this?

Landlords in this context have more power, and more opportunity for abuses, 
here than anywhere else.  All the benefits of landlording, with none of the 
risks, because it's the tenant's building.  Poor sewer line 
bursts?  Tenant's building.  Raise the rent?  Well, the tenant would move, 
but the home would fall apart if it were moved.  Or the city has absurd 
zoning requirements.  Evict the tenant?  Time to steal the home -- and I do 
mean steal.  After all, the tenant can't move it away.  Ever see a mobile 
home advertised for rent by the parkowner?  Ask to see their title 
documents, you may get a surprise.

The entire business is designed for exploitation.  From the start, with 
crooked home dealers often acting in collusion with landlords, to the 
finish, with eviction and theft, nationwide reforms are needed.  Co-ops are 
a part of the picture, but not all of it.

	-Paul